Gloria! Program Will Delight Holiday Music Lovers

West Liberty University choir and friends, with support from the Vance Memorial Church special music fund, and the Nutting Foundation Arts & Ideas Program, will proudly present Gloria! at 3 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 9 at Vance Memorial Presbyterian Church, 905 National Road, Wheeling.

The WLU concert choir, university chorus and chamber orchestra will be performing three classical and beloved “Gloria” compositions by Poulenc, Rutter and Vivaldi. The musical groups are under the direction of Dr. Alfred de Jaager, WLU’s director of choral activities, working in collaboration with Vance organist and choir director Deborah Poldoski Barlow.

“It’s going to be an exciting performance when we bring all the choirs together for this concert,” said de Jaager, who was honored with the Professor of the Year award from the WLU Student Government Association in 2006.

West Liberty University choirs will be joined by students from Wheeling Park, Brooke and Tyler Consolidated high schools for the Vivaldi work, which will feature a total of 80 voices. The St. Matthew Episcopal Church choir will join WLU for the Rutter and Poulenc compositions, creating a 45-voice choir.

The Glorias are beautiful sacred music based on the Bible’s book of Luke telling of the birth of Christ. The three composers featured at the Dec. 9 concert are all considered inspired composers of religious music. Francis Poulenc, a French composer, lived from 1899-1963 and his Gloria is world-renowned. John Milford Rutter, born in 1945, premiered his work in 1974 in Omaha, Neb. It is now a favorite holiday choral performance piece. Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was an Italian Baroque composer, priest and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice in 1678.

Doors will open at 2 p.m. with a pre-concert lecture provided by Monsignor Kevin Quirk of the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston at 2:15 p.m.

A free will offering will be accepted to benefit Laughlin Memorial Chapel and Wheeling Soup Kitchen.

Seating is limited and free tickets are available to the public by calling, WLU at 304-336-8930.